Predicting Organizational Commitment In Relation To Lead Pastor Transformational Leadership in U.S. Protestant Evangelical Churches: A Quantitative Study

Abstract

In business and education, transformational leadership has been shown to have an influence on organizational commitment in employees; however, no such research has been replicated in religious organizations like churches. This study examined the effect of lead pastor leadership practices on the organizational commitment of church staff members in U.S. Protestant Evangelical churches. 56 church staff members were surveyed on their organizational commitment (OC) and rated their lead pastor’s leadership practices using the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), respectively. The data was analyzed using simple linear regression to determine whether transformational leadership practices predict organizational commitment. The impact of the four components of transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration) on organizational commitment were also analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results indicate that transformational leadership can predict organizational commitment. The results also indicate that, of the four components, only idealized influence can significantly predict organizational commitment. These results suggest that organizational commitment of church staff is at least partially a function of leadership practices of lead pastors.